Rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the group The Fugees has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in connection with illegal donations to former US President Barack Obama’s election campaign. He was found guilty on all ten charges by a jury two years ago – Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has now announced his sentence.
The 52-year-old’s lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, called the prison sentence “grossly disproportionate to the crime committed.” Michel will appeal his conviction and sentence. Zeidenberg himself had asked for a sentence of three years in prison. But Justice Department prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Michel, who “betrayed his country for money” and lied “without reason and relentlessly” to carry out his plan.
Its connection to the financial scandal in Malaysia
The Grammy-winning rapper was found guilty of conspiracy, among other things. In 2012, he was said to have illegally smuggled funds from now-fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho into Obama’s campaign for re-election as US president through unscrupulous people.
Low, who has protested his innocence, is considered the mastermind of an international network of money laundering and corruption that is said to have seen several billion dollars diverted from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB. He has also been involved in financing several Hollywood productions, including Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Michel is also accused of trying to evade a Justice Department investigation into Low and influencing the extradition process at the behest of China under the US administration of Donald Trump. Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, among others, testified in the trial against Michel.
